Monday, February 20, 2012

A CHILDHOOD FAVORITE VEGAN-IZED

This last weekend on the CBC Radio One program "North by Northwest" they were asking for readers' stories and experiences looking for lost childhood favorite recipes or foods. That got me thinking about my own childhood favorites. Of course, like most of us, I was not raised vegan, so some of my old favorites were "meaty". My late mother, Eve Urbina, was a great cook, but not a baker, so not many homemade desserts came to mind (we mostly had yogurt and fruit for dessert). But one of my real favorite from my Mom's repertoire was chicken sauteed in olive oil with white wine and rosemary, which resulted in a sticky, flavorful "goo" at the bottom of the pan, which she would mix with steamed long-grain rice to serve with the chicken.

So, I attempted a vegan version for our Saturday night dinner, using some Gardein-made meatless "chicken breasts" we can buy frozen in our local Great Canadian Superstore. The most difficult part is getting the "goo" at the bottom of the pan. I tried a trick from my Italian cookbook "Nonna's Italian Kitchen", agar-jelled broth, but made with Better Than Bouillon No-Chicken Vegan Broth Paste instead of my homemade broth from the book. However, despite my jelled broth addition and cooking it down, the residue in the pan refused to get as “sticky-gooey” as the original. That’s probably because there was much more fat in my childhood version. But no worries— the resulting sauce was absolutely delish!

This dish is extremely quick and easy to make, but one of my
all-time favorites for flavor. I was trying to more-or-less replicate the
chicken with white wine dish that my mother often made when I was a child
growing up in a California winery. She would mix steamed long-grain rice in the
pan in which the chicken and herbs had been cooked and scrape up the delicious,
sticky residue to mix with the rice. You
could do the same with this dish, if you like.UPDATE:This reviewer loved the dish and he made it with my "Breast of Tofu" (recipe in most of my books and online here), known as "Crispy Marinated Tofu" in "World Vegan Feast", instead of the chicken sub. You could also use homemade seitan "cutlets". We can no longer get the Gardein or PC Blue Menu vegan products (made by Gardein) in Canada, so I will be using my "Breast of Tofu", or my homemade cutlets (see Light Seitan Cutlets" recipe, p.5 in "World Vegan Feast" from now on.

3/4 cup white wine, such as a Riesling (can be non-alcoholic)
or a dry white wine with a little medium sherry mixed in

2 sprigs fresh
rosemary, stripped off the stalk and chopped

freshly-ground black pepper to taste

Dredge whatever chicken sub pieces in Seasoned Flour (see below).
Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat. When the oil is
hot, arrange coated pieces in the pan. Cook until one side is golden, then turn
them over and cook until the other side is golden. Remove from the pan and set
aside.

Add the mushrooms and garlic to the pan and sprinkle with a
little salt. Stir-fry them over high heat, adding a tiny bit of water if they
seem to be sticking (the mushrooms will exude a little liquid), until they
start to wilt. Add the browned pieces back to the pan, along with the wine,
jelled broth (see below) and rosemary. Cook over high heat, stirring gently now and then,
until it cooks down and forms a thick sauce. Quickly remove from heat and grind
pepper over the dish. Serve immediately over steamed rice or mashed potatoes
(or mix the rice with any sauce left in the pan and serve the dish over that.)

JELLED BROTH: Adding agar to vegan broth gives it even more
body, enabling it to coat foods the way melted fat does. Mix 1 3/4 cups hot
water in a small saucepan with 1 tablespoon Better Than Bouillon No-Chicken
Vegan broth paste. Add 3/4 tsp. agar
powder with 1/4 cup cold water and stir into the pot. Bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer for
3 or 4 minutes. Keep any leftovers refrigerated in a tightly-covered container.
The jelled broth will melt when heated.

BRYANNA’S SEASONED
FLOUR

Keep some of this in a tightly-covered container in the
refrigerator-- you'll find many uses for it.

23 comments:

For Valentine's Day I made vegan 'chicken' cacciatore. It was jusr as delicious as I remembered it to be. More so, because no animals died for my pleasure. Gardein breasts make it easy to veganize so many old favorites.

My husband is going to love that recipe, Bryanna. Except I can't find a really good chicken sub locally but it should work with marinated extra firm tofu, don't you think?

One of my childhood favourites was what my mother called "Grashak Paprikash" and my grandma called "Goulash" (former Yugoslav, latter Hungarian). It's not the goulash recipe I see most often, although I've never seen two identical ones! It is similar to one that was served at a temporary Hungarian restaurant at the World Expo when it came to Aus in the '80s though. It's a very simple stew consisting of just about any meat (usually beef but often made with chicken and pork by both matriarchs), potatoes, peas and dumplings. The meat's no problem to veganize and I veganised the dumplings by trial and error, only to end up with something virtually identical to your "feather-light dumplings" from one of your cookbooks.

One desert I'd love to veganise but haven't had enough time to play with and am not sure on best subs is a cheesecake mum makes with cottage cheese, cream and maybe some beaten eggwhite (but I'm not sure about that bit). It's a cold set, European style of cheesecake but a bit lighter with just a tiny bit of graininess which normally I wouldn't like, but it's just right for that dessert somehow. I can't get vegan versions of cottage cheese or cream here and I'm not sure which of the homemade varieties would be best so I haven't really tried. Would be nice to have it for my birthday, though, which is coming up....

My favorite recipe from childhood was London Broil. I wonder what preparation for seitan would be ideal to simulate the texture of flank steak? Or should I try soy curls? I haven't eaten meat is so long I actually can't remember what the texture should be. Thanks!

elizabeth, you could try it with Soy Curls. But you could also try it with my "Breast of Tofu" from my older books or "Crispy Marinated Tofu" from World Vegan Feast. Do you have any of those books? Also, where do you live-- just wondering if some product that you're not aware of might be available in your area.

I live and hour from Butte, MT. I've never looked for vegan chicken cutlets, but am sure the local health food store would order some for me. I've never bought any meat subs and don't have my eye out for them when I'm shopping. I love tofu and do have some in the fridge. I don't have your books, but will have to order some soon!

Sounds like you have some great products where you live in Canada. I wish I could get the PC Blue Menu Peach & Passion Fruit Twice The Fruit Spread that I read about on your site, sounds so delicious! My parents go to B.C. every summer, so I'm going to have my Mom look for it.

My childhood favorite is Lumpia Semarang (Semarang is the town where I was born). http://whattocooktoday.com/semarang-style-lumpia-lumpia-semarang.html Here is what it looks like. It looks like fried spring rolls but the filling is made of bamboo shoots, pork, prawn, and eggs. They are not always fried. We also like it soft like the Vietnamese spring roll (rice paper rolls).I can veganize it but haven't tried it yet.

I saw that recipe when you posted it and it looks nice but a bit involved for me. I don't think it will end up like mum's cheese cake, but I have considered using the filling to replicate her ricotta strudel which she makes with philo pastry.

In the meantime, I've emailed my sister to get the recipe for mum's cheesecake... Experimenting to start soon...

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